author
Leonard Porter Ayres
1879–1946
A pioneering American statistician, economist, and educator, he helped turn masses of data into clear insights on schools, the military, and the economy. His work ranged from early studies of education to influential wartime and business analysis.
1 Audiobook
Health Work in the Public Schools
by Leonard Porter Ayres, May Ayres
About the author
Born in Niantic, Connecticut, on September 15, 1879, Leonard Porter Ayres built an unusually wide-ranging career as an educator, statistician, and economist. Early in his working life he taught in Puerto Rico and later became superintendent of schools there, before moving into research on education and social statistics.
Ayres became especially known for his statistical work with the Russell Sage Foundation, where he helped develop large-scale studies of schools and public life. During and after World War I, he served in major government and military roles connected with statistical analysis, and he later became vice president and chief economist at Cleveland Trust, where he wrote widely read reports on business conditions.
Remembered as a practical thinker who used numbers to explain real-world problems, Ayres wrote on education, war, and the economy in a way that reached both specialists and general readers. He died in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 29, 1946.